A couple of weeks ago an auction was held for a little girl’s future.  One of my contributions to the items to be purchased was my shortbread, which is dipped in chocolate.  The lot went for a pretty high price, and the winner asked me for the recipe.  Since I haven’t posted in a coon’s age (I’ve been particularly unmotivated, and not feeling the least bit domestic), I thought I would put the recipe here.   The name Sonic Boom shortbread is what the auction gave it, but it has since stuck.

What I’m going to to is type of the original recipe, then list the minor tweaks I gave it to get my shortbread.  Though – most of it is by instinct – and oven temp and different pans can give different results, so the recipe is not guaranteed.  Full recipe after the break

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I love comfort food, and it’s been especially appropriate these last two weeks. Two blizzards in one week made me decide that I had a distinct craving for stew. Not just any stew. Beef stew. Good beef stew. So I yielded to the craving, and this time I outdid myself. Better yet, my secrets will be revealed.

Forgive me ahead of time for vague measurements. It’s how I cook unless I’m following a recipe. I made this in a 5.5 qt Dutch oven on the stove. It took about an hour and a half from prep to serve. A note about the steak. I gave up last year on stew meat. Gross. Steak became the new meat of choice, usually a nice lean top round. This time, I used some top round and some New York strip steak. Next time, it will be New York strip steak all the way. Trust me, if you can afford it, it’s worth every penny. For the stock, I used Swanson’s Beef Stock for Cooking (33% less sodium).

Steak Stew

1 to 1.25 pounds of steak, preferably New York strip
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
3 large potatoes, chopped into chunks
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots, green beans)
beef stock to cover the ingredients in the pot (I needed around 40 oz)
5 tbs bouquet garni
ground pepper to taste
Several generous dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/5 to 1/4 bottle of Lea and Perrins steak sauce
Cornstarch to thicken (needed a couple tablespoons)
Water to dissolve the cornstarch

1. Grill the steak (or brown it if grilling isn’t practical).
2. Combine all the ingredients in the pot and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer until the potatoes are tender.
4. Thicken with a mixture of cornstarch and water and then serve.

It occurs to me, as I contemplate my dinner options for tonight, that I really play fast and loose with recipes. Tonight was going to be macaroni and cheese and ham. This recipe has morphed considerably from the time it came into ours family. Twenty-eight years ago, when my mom was a newly minted cardiac nurse, she got the mother-of-all macaroni and cheese recipes from a patient. The secret to this recipe is that the sauce is based on a roux.

When I grew up and started cooking on my own, I started tweaking the recipe. I used the microwave to make the roux because I was hopeless at making it on the stove. Then I upsized the recipe to make a larger casserole. My mother had been adding ham for years, but I raised the stakes by adding broccoli. Unfortunately, my husband is not fond of this variation. (I will include the original and modified recipes at the bottom of the post.) Read the rest of this entry

A dear friend of mine had a lovely idea for this last Christmas. Knowing that money is tight for both of our families, she suggested that we exchange baked goods as gifts. Perfect! Except there was a slight complication. My friend cannot eat wheat. This detail changed a no-brainer into a challenge. I wanted to send her something that she would be able to enjoy instead of just passing it on to her family. So I hit the internet  searching on wheat-free cookies.  The results were less than appetizing.

In desperation, I decided to experiment with alternate flours. So, I headed off to Giant to see what I could find. There I beheld quinoa flour for the first time. It’s pronounced keen-wa, and I’ve included that tidbit because I was clueless the first time I saw the word in print. The package said, “Quinoa has a delicate nutty flavor and is versatile for baking.” It sounded like a good candidate for a wheat substitute.

At home, I got out my chocolate chips and my trusty chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe. Then I opened the package of quinoa flour. The stuff smelled like chalk dust. I was not encouraged, but I pressed on. I made the cookie dough substituting equal amounts of quinoa flour for wheat flour. I am nothing, if not fearless, in my alterations of recipes. They don’t always work, but I’ll give anything a go. The cookie dough came out on the stiff side. I thought then that perhaps a 1:1 substitution was not the best choice, I but baked a trial sheet of cookies. The rest of the dough went back in the fridge.

When I took the cookies out of the oven, they were puffy rather than flattish like regular chocolate chip cookies. They even had some little points that browned slightly, but it was the, er, aroma that made me skeptical. To put it bluntly, they stunk. The smell was something like roasted chalk. Unfortunately, my house lacks a range hood that actually vents to the outside, and it was too cold to open windows.

So I let the cookies cool figuring that I would be throwing them out and formulating a new plan. Nonetheless, I forced myself to be brave and try one before pitching the lot. It was… wait for it… surprisingly good. Almost as good as the genuine article. I was positively gleeful, mostly because it meant I didn’t have to come up with another idea. I finished baking the rest before the Girlie got home from school. As soon as she walked in the door, she said, “What stinks?” It was that bad. For real. The house still smelled a few hours later when we came back from her dance class.

The smell was worth it. My friend told me that she loved the cookies and had devoured them. I think quinoa is going to become a staple in her cupboard. The recipe is below for those with the fortitude to endure the odor. Read the rest of this entry